MBARI HOUSES (_continued_)

In Mbari houses built in honour of Amade Onhia it is made perfectly clear, as is natural, that the Thunderer himself holds first place, while his consort is of secondary importance. In the shrine at Omo Dim, as previously mentioned, the place of honour, facing the entrance, was occupied by the figure of the so-called deified ancestress Mbafor--a bowl for offerings sunk into the ground at her feet and her daughter upon her knee. The face and form of the mother are bright yellow, the colour of the clay from which she is modelled as are those of Ala in all shrines yet visited; while the whole body of the child is dead white, like that of the Thunderer himself, the deified ancestor Njokku seated above his sky ladder, or indeed ghosts and ‘sky people’ in general.

On the white of her body five coal-black crescent moons had been painted; one just above the shoulder, one on the top of the arm and three down the flank. All, save that on the arm, showed a protuberance in the centre, exactly in the place where the nose would come when children draw the face of the man in the moon. The point would not have been worth mentioning but for the fact that in each Mbari house visited a peculiar decoration was noticeable, only to be described as a screen of lattice-work, formed of interlacing human figures. This was explained as representing the slaves sacrificed and flung into the grave--or laid there still living, but with broken arms and thigh bones--to form carpet and bier for the body of the dead chief. It may well have borne some such interpretation, but this would hardly explain the fact that, in each case which we came across, one row of figures, usually the centre one, bore faces the shape of a crescent moon, mostly dead white and outlined by a deep black rim. At Omo Dim, Okpala and Obogwe too there is a figure--which is duplicated with more or less fidelity in several other shrines and which for obvious enough reasons was named, by my companions, ‘little moon-face’--of the same type as those in the human trellis work.

Now the crescent moon is a sign of growth the world over. Ekoi women come together, beneath her faint beams, to carry out the rites which, according to their belief, will ensure fruitfulness. Ibibio and Ibo also hold that her rays are endued with fecundative powers, while pregnant women count the time to their delivery by her waxing and waning.

Some few weeks later, in passing through the town of Ebubu in the extreme east of Degama District inhabited by that strange and hitherto unstudied tribe, the Mbolli, we came across a shrine of a type such as we had never before seen. It is carved from a solid block of wood some four feet high, set in a carefully smoothed clay base, swathed round the bottom by folds of white cloth and surmounted by an inverted crescent. The name of this Juju is Obo Esa, _i.e._ in Mbolli dialect four hundred yams. The reason given for this name is that only full chiefs have the right to erect such a fetish, to which they must sacrifice each harvest time baskets containing the given number of yams. It was explained that Obo Esa is a male Juju--a statement borne out by the appearance of the symbolic pillar--and to him, at the cutting of new farms and digging of fresh yams, living sacrifices must be brought and slain so that their blood is shed upon the clay base, whence it trickles down over the seven little moon-shaped depressions to the thirsty earth beneath. These small half moons may well typify the period during which the yams are confided to the bosom of Mother Ale--called Nkike by the Mbolli--while the great crescent, surmounting the pillar, probably represents that of the month of September during which the harvest festival is usually held.

Considering the close connection between the waxing moon and the powers of fertility, it is not without significance that personified representations of the crescent are to be found in each Mbari house, especially when it is remembered that the shrine of the Earth Goddess is always close by and that only after consultation with her priest is the building begun and carried through.

Again, although we were expressly told, as already related, that the chief figure at Omo Dim did not represent either of the principal deities, but only a deified ancestress, yet a man present volunteered the information--it is true, in a highly superior manner--that some old and very ignorant people held them to be those of Amad’ongha and Ale. So stupid, however, were such that they even believed the white child, on the knee of the Earth Mother, to be the moon! As if any but the most foolish could look upon the moon as a daughter of Earth!

In the Obogwe Mbari house--the only one which we have yet found built in two separate edifices--the first building was dedicated to Amad’ongha and the second to Ale, locally called Ala. Our informant, Omere Madu, was the son of the late head chief who therefore, _ipso facto_, was priest of Ale. He told us that this goddess was the dominant power in the town, and that she ordered her priest to have the two houses built in that place and form--one for herself and one for her spouse Amad’ongha. In both buildings he sits in the seat of honour, but in the first alone, while in the second she is seen on his left, in the same position as that of the figure at Obodo to which her name was first given, but which was later called Omu Ngwaw, the fruitful mother (see p. 40).

In the temple dedicated to the Thunderer, on the left of the central figure is seen one, the name of which was said to be Eku Nechi--_i.e._ ‘the big woman who cooks,’ or more fully ‘who gathers the children of others around her and cooks for them.’ The figure is seated, supporting a boy and a girl against her sides; while another pair sits, one upon each of her outstretched legs. The most singular thing about this group is that each of the male children bears a crescent moon for face, while from the necks of the two girls is painted a cloth thickly covered with white dots. On the wall of the Ale shrine, a fresco may be seen on which a moon-faced boy is depicted climbing up the right hand side of a rainbow, painted in black, yellow and red stripes. In such a position he is supposed to be an envoy from the Earth Goddess, climbing the sky with a message from Amade Onhia, or, when descending, bringing word from the latter to the children of men. Beneath, on a black ground, a crescent moon and stars are shown--the stars represented by white dots exactly like those painted round the necks of the girl piccans of Eku Nechi. It is not impossible therefore that here again, in ‘the big woman who feeds the children of others,’ we have another forgotten picturing of Ale, the Earth Mother, with her starry progeny.

A singular fact about all the Mbari shrines hitherto visited is that, in each, figures may be seen, obviously modelled with the express intention of depicting licence in its most blatant form. Primitive peoples the world over, however frank in picturing or mentioning facts treated with the greatest reticence by civilised races, are usually ignorant of real vulgarity or indecency, since the very simplicity of manner and treatment robs their statements of offence. The Ibo of this region, especially, have a code with regard to sexual matters which, however lax according to our ideas, is yet strangely strict in some directions. According to them four of the most evil things are:

(1) For man and woman to lie together on the earth, since this is thought to defile Ale. Among Kalabari indeed the idea is carried so far that no woman is allowed, under any circumstances, to seat herself upon the ground. In the absence of stool or convenient tree-trunk she must stand. As already mentioned, according to chief Amade Onyeche, the position adopted by Etche Ibo, when no bed, mat or cloth is available, is for the woman to stand bending forward at right angles from the waist, while her lover stands immediately behind.

(2) Connection is absolutely forbidden during the hours of daylight, or even at night time when a light is burning in the room; also at any time in the bush or in a farm, where there is no house.

(3) It is the height of impropriety for a man to have relations with a woman who is not clothed in the prescribed custom.

(4) For a husband to attempt to view the genital organs of his wife is regarded as so serious an offence as to be considered valid ground for divorce. In a case brought before me in the Degama Native Court, the claim ran: ‘To demand freedom of marriage on account of peeping.’

In every Mbari house yet visited, however, figures were seen modelled with the obvious purpose of expressing a breach of one or other of these rules. In most of the buildings groups were found in which the feminine figure was shown partially lying on the ground--in a position impossible to any human anatomy and therefore, it would seem, so posed as intentionally to express direct rebellion against the generally accepted rules of decency.

An official of high rank, who was the first Government representative to visit this region, described to me a shrine which he saw about twelve years ago, near Ingaw in Owerri District, where certain points were even more naïvely depicted than by those erected in the present day. Among the more noticeable groups were men in the act of copulating with a sheep and antelope respectively. As regards the latter animal, it is not without interest to recall that, according to several accounts from well-informed sources, ancient Yoruba custom ordained that, after the kill of his first antelope, a young hunter must have connection with the still warm form. Possibly some such rule obtained, or maybe even yet exists, in these regions.

The group of men and sheep seems to point to the existence of a like custom among Ibo as one learns, on good authority, prevails among the neighbouring Ijaw, with whom the chief feature of male initiatory rites consists in each boy proving his manhood, before a circle of elders, upon a specially selected sheep. Should he be unsuccessful, he must wait until the following year and is prevented from marriage until after having passed the test. From certain information it would appear that one of the principal centres, where this rite is carried out, may be found on a southern creek in the neighbourhood of Kula.[7] It was naïvely added that the sheep ‘never go ’gree to this and always vex too much’ when the rite was carried out. Later, a similar custom was reported from among the Ekkpahians of Ahoada District.

It is true that every Ibo or Kalabari who mentioned the subject was eager to state that Ekkpahians perform this rite ‘merely out of badness; for no proper reason at all.’ Yet, though it is unfortunately not permitted me to give a single name as authority, it would appear, after very careful weighing of evidence, that the practice has been exacted from time immemorial as a test of manhood. Both Ibo and Kalabari also asserted that unnatural vice is extensively practised among this people, though rare with other races of the Division; but it is only just to state that the practice appears to be carried on not for the purpose of sensual indulgence, but, in some cases at least, from the idea, held among certain Australian tribes, that such customs increase the race by magical means.

That the practice is not held in as great detestation throughout Ekkpahian and neighbouring territory as among other tribes is proved by the more or less casual manner in which the matter was mentioned as well as from one or two Court cases. It will be enough to quote that heard at Omokku on January 20th, 1913, in which Atoma of Erema charged Okereke of Idu with indecent assault. In the course of her evidence plaintiff stated on oath:

About three months ago accused came to my father’s house to have connection with him. At that time I went to bed....

_Question by Court._ When he came to your house, where did he stay with your father to have connection?

_Answer._ Outside the house.

_Question by Accused._ What date did I come to your house?

_Answer._ Orie day.

_Question by Court_ (_to father_). Was accused your friend?

_Answer._ No.

_Question by Court._ Did accused ever come to your house and have connection with you at night?

_Answer._ Yes. He always come to my house and prosecutor saw him.

Among Ekkpahians and the Abuan, as well as with the Western Ikwerri, elaborate, two-storied buildings may be seen, upon which the wealth and utmost resources of the town have been lavished, even to stained- and patterned-glass for all the windows. My attention was drawn to these buildings by a man high in the medical service of the Protectorate, with the information that they were erected for the practice of unnatural vices. This was later confirmed from native sources with the addition that they were the homes of the Obukere Club and that the customs were of religious significance. The fact that such habits exist is, unfortunately, too well known to be worth mentioning, were it not for a few words dropped by one of the chiefs and intended in extenuation of the practice. ‘It is true,’ he said, ‘that the custom is a very bad one; yet aged men tell us that it was taught in olden days as a very great magic _whereby our flocks and herds might be multiplied and made strong. Even, it is said, the crops in the farms are increased thereby._’

The idea was confirmed by another chief who however insisted that it was only a tradition from the olden time--held by dead men, very far away--and he did not think that any such belief was prevalent nowadays. He also added, cautiously, that this form of vice was far less indulged in at present than was formerly the case.

The information fitted in with that already gleaned concerning the supposed efficacy of phallic shrines set up amid the fields in order to secure plentiful crops.

As a result, further information was sought concerning the cult of Obukere, one of the most interesting of whose lodges was discovered at Obelle Oduaha. An avenue, half a mile in length, every trunk of which bore a sinister-looking smear of cam-wood dye, led to the house. At the entrance to this grove it opens out into a cleared space, from the centre of which springs a clump of trees smeared with deep bands of red and hung round with white cloth. Behind these rises a giant ant hill, while round their roots a mound of earth about five feet high was piled. Amid the rich mould and fallen leaves stood votive pots and bowls, among which bundles of young tombo palms just bursting from the parent kernels, were to be seen, mostly enclosed in wrappings of broad green leaves bound round with tie-tie. This clump of trees is regarded as the abode of Obukere himself. Here members of his cult assemble to carry out the rites. Before his dwelling-place the worshippers cover their faces and, thus veiled or masked, go in procession through the sacred grove--the tree trunks of which, down to the smallest sapling, have been fresh smeared with the symbolic blood-red cam-wood. In these regions Obukere is regarded as the great giver of fertility to all in air, water or upon earth--fish, animals, plants or men.

Club, Oduaha]

All lodges of this club as yet visited show a peculiar development in the highly conventionalised animal head-dresses which are worn for plays. In the Otu Obukele (house of Obukele or Obukere) a big shed made of solid wooden posts, at the Abuan town of Okobaw, some head-dresses of unusual type were found; among them representations of antelopes, porcupines and the ‘increase of the Sky people,’ typifying the sky world above that of men.

Round the lodge at Obelle Oduaha were seven phallic shrines six of which were of the usual pillar type, while the seventh showed a featureless head, arms and legs indicated in the roughest manner, and only the distinctly feminine organs modelled with any care. The position of these shrines in close proximity to the house of Obukere worshipped with the avowed purpose of increasing fertility in man, animals and crops, can hardly be regarded as without significance. Within the house were two objects of interest--a xylophone in the shape of a canoe manned by eight figures, stated by the chief to have been specially designed to express ‘joy’ and raise feelings of pleasure in those who behold them; and an object which strongly resembled the Ajokko-Ji or king yam shown to us at Oppe, separated by the sacred crocodile swamp from Alessa, and which will be more fully described later on page 99.

The drum used at Oduaha to call together the members of the Obukere Club was said to have been brought from Abua and to have been made for the Sekapu Club, connected with the spirits of fish, crocodiles and--in this part of the world--land beasts. It may be only a whim of the carver that the figure of the woman, depicted with rounded body as a sign of pregnancy, should be joined to that of the sacred crocodile. Drums of similar type were later found among Abaw Ibo.

house]

and Ale. Shrine drummers on the right]